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BMS to organise nationwide protest on June 10 against privatisation
“A nationwide protest under the banner ‘Save Public Sector, Save India’ will be organised in the form of a day-long dharna, protest meetings, and campaign etc; at the unit level,” said Vrijesh Upadhyay, general secretary, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will organise a nationwide protest on June 10 against the central government’s plan of privatisation in various sectors.
On Thursday, the BMS, which had earlier pushed the Narendra Modi-led government to prevent states from pushing changes in the labour laws, criticised the move to commercialise the coal sector; corporatisation of the defence ordnance factories board and railways; strategic sale of public sector units (PSUs), merger and privatisation of banks and insurance sector; and to attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the country.
“A nationwide protest under the banner ‘Save Public Sector, Save India’ will be organised in the form of a day-long dharna, protest meetings, and campaign etc; at the unit level,” said Vrijesh Upadhyay, general secretary, BMS.
In May, while announcing the government’s fourth tranche of initiatives towards achieving Atmanirbhar Bharat in a bid to tide over the growing economic crisis triggered by the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced structural reforms in eight sectors of the economy — coal, minerals, defence production, aviation, power distribution in union territories, space and atomic energy.
The BMS, which has been critical of the government’s decision to privatise the national carrier Air India and other PSUs said, “…It is being observed from past few decisions of the government that it is trying to push and impose its unjust decisions on the workers of the country. The BMS is committed to fighting until it stops the government from taking the anti-public sector and anti-worker decisions.”
The BMS has taken an adversarial position against the government’s decision. “The government is justifying the dire need of money to run its machinery. However, it has no moral right or authority to sell national assets created by its predecessors,” it added.
